Okolie set for WBO cruiserweight title fight against Glowacki

‘Joshua, Fury fight wont be delayed till November’
Lawrence Okolie’s first world title fight on Saturday comes as part of a busy month for the cruiserweight boxer, whose forthcoming book follows the release of a music single, reports ESPN.

The Nigerian-born British cruiserweight’s debut rap single “TKO” was released earlier in March, and will be played when he walks to the ring to face Krzysztof Glowacki for the vacant WBO world cruiserweight title at The SSE Arena in London.

Okolie (15-0, 12 KOs), who is known as “The Sauce,” has not fought for a world title before, but the 28-year-old is already hoping it quickly leads to unification title fights before a move up to heavyweight.

“I hope to step up one day, after three or four title fights at cruiserweight,” Okolie told ESPN.

“When it’s time to make the transition to heavyweight I will make it well. I will put on a bit of weight, but not too much. I definitely want to unify titles at cruiserweight but it depends how things move with different fighters, and I’m not looking past this one.”

Glowacki (31-2, 19 KOs), 34, will be Okolie’s most experienced opponent to date, and the Londoner admits he has altered his preparations after a quick demolition of Nikodem Jezewski in December. Okolie stopped Jezewski after Glowackli pulled out of the December fight date due to a positive COVID-19 test.

“His experience will make Glowacki more confident but that’s as far as it goes, it makes him ready,” Okolie said.

“But I’m one of those fighters who is only as good as who I am fighting. He’s a good fighter, really strong and good at counter boxing. After he saw what I did to his countryman I’ve prepared for a more switched-on fighter, maybe on the backfoot, and a better prepared Glowacki.”

Okolie is managed by Anthony Joshua, the IBF-WBA-WBO world heavyweight champion, and wants to become the first world champion client for Joshua’s 258 Management firm. One of the potential unification fights would be against Latvia’s IBF titleholder Mairis Briedis, who stopped Glowacki in three rounds in June 2019. Glowacki has not boxed since.

“The end goal with Lawrence is to move up to heavyweight but he has unfinished business at cruiserweight,” Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn said.

“I only see him at cruiserweight for another year. I just see him beating everyone in the division. The pace we move him at will be determined how Saturday goes.”

Meanwhile, Hearn has dismissed claims suggesting Joshua versus Tyson Fury could be delayed to later in the year in order to maximise revenue generated by the lucrative site deal.

AJ’s promoter revealed on Monday that contracts are signed for the undisputed heavyweight title fight, with just the date and venue left to be resolved.

Multiple foreign nations are now bidding big money to try and secure the contest.

June/July has been consistently touted as the target date, but there have been rumours that the fight could be pushed back as countries could pay more money when various COVID restrictions are lifted.

When asked if he’s confident the fight will happen this summer Hearn told White and Jordan on talkSPORT:
“Yeah, that’s 100 per cent the focus.

“We know it’s a difficult world at the moment, we know there’s travel restrictions, we know global economies are crumbling, but ultimately that’s the date of the fight.

“People are talking about, ‘Some people might prefer this fight to take place in September/October/November.’

“Well, ‘some people’ aren’t us. We want Fury against AJ, two fights this year.

“This is what we’ve signed up to, this is what we’re talking to all the relevant sites and approaches that we’ve had is a two-fight agreement, one in June/July, one in November/December.

“Not later on in the year and so forth.”